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U.N. Warns Half Yemen's People Could Soon Be on Brink of Famine

The United Nations aid chief sounded the alarm at the Security Council - half the population of war-torn Yemen - some 14 million people - could soon be on the brink of famine and completely relying on humanitarian aid for survival. Report in The New York Times

"There is now a clear and present danger of an imminent and great big famine engulfing Yemen: much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives," U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock said.

He described the scale of what was being faced in Yemen as "shocking" given that only two famines had been declared in the world in the past 20 years - Somalia in 2011 and a localized famine in South Sudan last year.